This invention relates to an electric domestic appliance comprising a kit and a method for producing this kit for an electric domestic appliance.

Document US2002/058595 discloses a device for deodorizing an environment comprising perfumed particles emitting their perfume outside the container. Document WO01/56622 discloses an apparatus for deodorizing air in confined spaces comprising a first and a second filter member which are attachable to a moving member. Document WO02/42364 discloses a method for producing a polyethylene or polypropylene plastic film having an odor barrier material incorporated into said film.

Electric domestic appliances are known which comprise at least one internal compartment, kept closed during normal functioning by an access door, to which a seal is usually attached to ensure airtight closure of the internal compartment. These appliances include, for example, refrigeration appliances and washing appliances: in refrigeration appliances the internal compartment consists of a refrigerator or a freezer, in which foodstuffs are placed to be cooled or frozen, while in washing appliances the internal compartment consists of a drum or chamber in which items of clothing (if the appliance is a washing machine) or dishes (if the appliance is a dishwasher) are placed in order to be washed.

An electric domestic appliance is traditionally packaged at the end of the production cycle: this means that the relative internal compartment remains closed until the appliance is removed from the packaging and positioned in the home of the user, or displayed in a store in order to be seen, and possibly chosen, by a customer.

It should be pointed out that a fairly significant period of time may pass, even several months, between the time of packaging and the subsequent opening of the door which keeps the internal compartment closed.

Once the packaging has been removed, known electric domestic appliances traditionally present the problem of emitting an unpleasant odour when the door providing access to the internal compartment is opened. This is a fairly serious problem. In fact, when the appliance is on display in a store, the customer may, on smelling this unpleasant odour, consciously or unconsciously associate this appliance with a poor level of quality and be persuaded to purchase a competitor's appliance. The unpleasant odour does in fact have an immediate negative impact on the customer. In the case of a refrigerator, the unpleasant odour is due essentially to the release of monomers by the polymers forming the inner walls of the refrigerator or freezer, these polymers being in particular styrene-based polymers (mainly polystyrene or ABS). The continuous release of monomers, in the period during which the appliance remains in its packaging, means that when the door is opened the first few times there is a characteristic and fairly intense odour which is commonly associated with plastic.

The cause of the unpleasant odour in the internal compartment of a washing appliance is different: in this case, the unpleasant odour is due to the fungi, mould and bacteria which develop from the few drops of water present in the drum, these being the remains of the water used during the testing cycle carried out before the appliance was sealed and packed.

To counter the phenomenon of the unpleasant odour that accumulates in the internal compartment of an electric domestic appliance, in particular a refrigeration or washing appliance, when it is packaged, a series of possible solutions have been devised and implemented:

1. i) a first solution consists of spraying a scented spray in the internal compartment of the appliance or of placing a solid or liquid scented essence in it. This operation must be carried out before the appliance is packaged. This solution presents the disadvantage of requiring an additional operation in the production cycle of the appliance, with the inevitable increase in cost, time and complexity of the production process;
2. ii) a second solution consists of applying a coating which comprises a scented essence to the surface of the walls of the internal compartment of the appliance or to a portion of this surface. As well as requiring an additional operation, this solution leads to the serious problem that the scent remains during the functioning of the appliance: this is particularly unacceptable if the appliance is a refrigeration appliance, since this scent alters the smell of the food contained inside the appliance;
3. iii) a third solution, specifically for refrigeration appliances, consists of adding a scented essence to the plastic used to form the inner walls of the refrigerator or freezer. In addition to the impossibility of removing the scent before the appliance is put into operation, this solution presents the problem that most of the scented essence is ineffective and thus wasted. In fact, the walls of a refrigerator or freezer are generally between 0.8 mm and 1.5 mm thick, but only the scented essence on the surface of these walls and which comes into contact with the air in the internal compartment is effective against the unpleasant odour due to the release of monomers.

The aim of this invention is to resolve the problems described above, providing a kit with electric domestic appliances that counters the unpleasant odours generated in the internal compartment of an electric domestic appliance during the period starting with the airtight closure of the internal compartment prior to packaging up to the opening of the door after removal of the packaging.

Another aim of the invention is to provide a kit with electric domestic appliances that can carry out a sanitising action on the micro-organisms that are present in this internal compartment.

A further aim is to counter these unpleasant odours and/or presence of undesired micro-organisms without foreseeing any additional working operation during the production cycle of the appliance and without requiring any additional operation on the part of the user with respect to what is usually carried out between the purchase and start up of the appliance.

Additional aims of this invention are to provide an electric domestic appliance comprising the above-mentioned kit and a procedure for the production of the above-mentioned kit.

These and other aims are achieved by means of an electric domestic appliance comprising the above-mentioned kit and a procedure for the production of the above-mentioned kit with the characteristics disclosed in the appended claims which represent an integral part of this description.

The general idea on which this invention is based is to counter the unpleasant odours generated in the internal compartment of an electric domestic appliance, providing deodorising and/or aromatising and/or sanitising properties to a kit for electric domestic appliances.

The subject of this invention is therefore a kit with an electric domestic appliance which kit comprises:

1. i) a first component consisting of paper documentation relative to the appliance, for example an instruction manual and/or the guarantee of the appliance;
2. ii) a second component consisting of a holder that defines an internal cavity in which the paper documentation is contained.

According to this invention, at least one of these first and second components emits particles able to counter the unpleasant odours of the surrounding outer environment.

In particular, the particles able to counter the unpleasant odours of the surrounding outer environment are emitted by the holder.

In a preferred embodiment, the holder of the kit according to this invention differs from the bags at present normally used to contain and protect the instruction manuals of electric domestic appliances since it is provided with a variety of functions, namely that of pleasantly scenting the internal compartments of appliances, in particular refrigeration and washing appliances, and/or of countering and/or limiting and/or destroying the unpleasant odours and/or micro-organisms and/or pathogenic agents that are generated in this compartment.

Advantageously, the holder is flexible. The holder preferably comprises a bag and even more preferably consists of a bag.

The particles preferably perform a deodorising action by means of which they tend to eliminate any odours in the surrounding external environment.

The particles advantageously perform an aromatising action by means of which they tend to cover the odours in the surrounding external environment with their scent. The majority of the particles emitted by the scented essences carry out a combined deodorising and aromatising action.

The instruction manual of the kit according to this invention can be any one of those currently used by the manufacturers of appliances to provide users with information such as: installation method, maintenance, technical data of the product, etc.

The holder is preferably made from polymeric material, even more preferably from ethylene polymers and/or copolymers, in particular from polyethylene (for example low density polyethylene, known commercially as LDPE) or from ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA).

The material of the holder advantageously comprises a scented essence that emits particles with an aromatising and/or deodorising action.

In particular, the particles comprise the volatile molecules emitted by the scented essences. The scented essence is selected on the basis of the desired aroma to be provided in the internal compartment of the appliance: among the possible aromas, fruit aromas (lemon, strawberry, green apple, etc.) appear to be particularly suitable for this invention. To provide a strawberry aroma, for example, one of the essential volatile compounds of the strawberry can be used, for example one of the 91 esters identified by Tressl in 1969 (1-pentyl acetate, 1-pentyl n-butyrate, 1-pentyl n-caproate, etc.).

The quantity of scented essence in the holder can vary considerably depending on the type of scented essence and/or the volume of the internal compartment in which the kit must be placed and/or the desired concentration of particles of scented essence to be released in the internal compartment of the appliance. The scented essence preferably constitutes from 1% to 20% of the weight of the holder, even more preferably from 8% to 12% of the weight of the holder. The scented essence advantageously constitutes 10% of the weight of the holder.

The thickness of the holder is extremely limited, preferably between 0.01 mm and 0.5 mm, even more preferably between 0.1 mm and 0.3 mm, advantageously 0.2 mm. The limited thickness means that a significant amount of scented essence is effective because it is in direct contact with the air in the internal compartment of the appliance.

In a preferred embodiment, the scented essence is uniformly distributed in the holder. Alternatively, the holder comprises an inner layer and an outer surface layer chemically different from the inner layer, the particles being emitted by the outer surface layer. The inner layer and the outer surface layer are advantageously closely adherent to each other. The outer surface layer is preferably applied to the inner layer by means of painting.

The particles emitted also perform a sanitising action. In this case, for example, the particles comprise silver ions previously applied to the holder and gradually released.

The sanitising action is important in order to eliminate micro-organisms (fungi, mould, bacteria, etc.) that are responsible for unpleasant odours. This is particularly evident in washing appliances which may contain residual traces of water from the testing cycle carried out before the appliance is sealed and packaged.

In an alternative embodiment, part of the paper documentation emits the particles with a deodorising and/or aromatising and/or sanitising action. In this case, the holder is permeable to the particles tp allow the particles to pass through the holder from the inside to the outside. In particular, the holder can present holes. Advantageously, the documentation paper is scented and the particles are scented essence particles emitted by the paper. The particles can also have a sanitising action as, for example, in the case of silver ions. In this case, the ions are previously applied to the paper documentation and then gradually released.

Subject of this invention is an electric domestic appliance comprising:

• an internal compartment;
• a kit for electric domestic appliances of the type previously described.

The packaged electric domestic appliance contains this kit inside the internal compartment, in order that the kit carries out a deodorising and/or aromatising and/or sanitising action in the compartment.

The electric domestic appliance according to this invention and containing the above-described kit can comprise:

1. i) a refrigerator, or a freezer or a fridge-freezer, comprising a refrigerator compartment area and/or a freezer compartment in which foodstuffs to be cooled and/or frozen are placed (in this case, the kit according to this invention is positioned in the compartment, for example on the lower wall of the compartment or on one of the shelves inside the compartment);
2. ii) a washing machine, a tumble-dryer or a combined washer-dryer, comprising a drum, which rotates around its own axis, in which items of clothing to be washed and/or dried are placed (in this case, the kit according to the invention is positioned in the drum);
3. iii) a dishwasher, comprising an internal compartment in which dishes to be washed are placed (in this case, the kit according to this invention is positioned in the internal compartment).

The concentration of scented essences in the air of the internal compartment of the appliance is preferably sufficient to exceed the concentration of monomers released by the plastic (one of the sources of unpleasant odours) and the chemical composition of the scented essences is preferably such that the human sense of smell is more sensitive to this composition.

This description clearly shows that to produce a kit for electric domestic appliances, in particular for refrigeration appliances or washing and/or drying appliances, according to this invention, an innovative procedure can be used, this procedure also being the subject of this invention.

This procedure intends to provide a kit for electric domestic appliances of the type described above. The procedure foresees the following steps:

1. i) adding an additional component to the basic plastic material in order to obtain a mixture of the basic plastic material and the additional component;
2. ii) modelling of this mixture to obtain a sheet. This step can be carried out by moulding or extrusion of the mixture. Advantageously, a film is obtained from the modelling step, in particular a film is obtained during the modelling step. The thickness of the film is preferably between 0.01 mm and 0.5 mm, even more preferably between 0.1 mm and 0.3 mm, advantageously 0.2 mm. The modelling step of this sheet comprises the step of cutting the film to obtain a sheet. Between the modelling step (in particular the modelling step of the film) and the cutting step, a winding step can be carried out, making the film easy to transport, for example winding it to form a reel;
3. iii) positioning the paper documentation on the sheet;
4. iv) forming a holder from the sheet, the paper documentation remaining housed in this holder.

Step iv) of forming a holder from the sheet can be carried out by folding the sheet and subsequently sealing the edges of the sheet in order to form the holder which holds the manual.

The additional component mentioned above comprises a scented essence and/or a component with a sanitising action. The scented essence preferably constitutes from 1% to 20% of the weight of basic plastic material-scented essence mixture; even more preferably from 8% to 12%, advantageously around 10%. An example of an additional component with a sanitising action is silver ions.

The production of the holder is similar to the production of the bags currently used to hold instruction manuals. One difference lies in the fact that in the loading hopper (which contains the basic material, typically in granular form, used to obtain the plastic film from which the holder is then formed) the basic plastic material (for example polyethylene) is mixed with the desired quantity of additional component (for example an essence with a strawberry aroma, such as 1-pentyl acetate or the component with a sanitising action), making the mixture of the basic plastic material and the additional component as homogeneous as possible so that the additional component is uniformly distributed on the sheet used to form the holder.

The adding step can also consist of loading the hopper with the basic plastic material already premixed with the additional component. It is obvious that the holder according to this invention does not require any additional processing with respect to bags known to the prior art, so the sole increase in cost, which is extremely limited to the point of being insignificant, consists of the difference in cost between the additional component and the amount of basic plastic material that may have been removed and replaced by the additional component.

The step of homogenising the mixture (in solid or liquid state) is advantageously foreseen between the adding step and the modelling step.

The film is then cut to obtain a sheet of plastic material and scented essence. The paper documentation (instruction manual and/or other documentation accompanying the manual, such as for example identification labels, gadgets, etc.) is placed on the sheet. The sheet is then folded (preferably along a symmetric axis of the sheet) so that the manual is positioned between two opposite flaps of the folded sheet. The creation of the kit according to this invention is then completed with a closing operation (for example sealing which, by joining the overlapping edges of the folded sheet, creates the holder and encloses the manual inside the holder).

The holder according to this invention can be closed on three sides, or on two sides parallel to each other and adjacent to the folded side. In this second case, the closure of the holder can be completed by applying adhesive tape or reversible opening or closing means, such as for example clamps or closure strips, on the free edges.

As an alternative to the adding step, a kit can be obtained with the following steps:

• applying on the inner layer of the holder the outer surface layer chemically different from the inner layer, this outer surface layer comprising a component that emits the particles;
• inserting the paper documentation in this holder.

The particles can have a deodorising and/or aromatising and/or sanitising action. The application of the outer surface layer on the inner layer of the holder preferably comprises a step of painting the inner layer with a paint that contains the component that emits the particles.

The particle-emitting component advantageously comprises a scented essence and/or a component with a sanitising action.

The insertion of the paper documentation in the holder can take place before or after the application of the outer surface layer. This alternative method of forming the holder is, however, less advantageous than the method previously described as it adds a further processing step, which means an increase in cost and a more complex production process of the kit.

Once the kit has been formed, it is positioned in the internal compartment of the electric domestic appliance according to this invention in exactly the same way as currently foreseen for the insertion of bags containing instruction manuals in electric domestic appliances. This makes it possible to scent the internal compartment without any additional operation with respect to those currently performed in the production of the electric domestic appliance. The kit can be left loose in the internal compartment of the appliance, or fixed for example by means of adhesive tape: it will in any case be extracted by the user before operating the appliance, as commonly occurs nowadays for the instruction booklets for known electric domestic appliances.

This invention provides numerous advantages.

Firstly, the kit neutralises, or considerably attenuates, the unpleasant odour released from the internal compartment of electric domestic appliances (such as refrigeration appliances or washing appliances), when, after removing the packaging, the door of the internal compartment is opened. It should be remembered that, in addition to being somewhat disagreeable, this unpleasant odour can condition the commercial success of an electric domestic appliance, the unpleasant odour being traditionally associated with an impression of poor quality.

Secondly, the kit easily adapts to different types of electric domestic appliances: for example, once it has been produced, it can be placed inside a refrigeration appliance or a washing and/or drying appliance, since it in any case has an effective scenting action countering unpleasant odours, whatever their cause. The only condition whereby a kit according to this invention should be placed in a refrigerator, rather than a washing machine, a dishwasher or a tumble-dryer, depends on the type of instructions in the manual.

Thirdly, the kit (unlike alternative methods for removing unpleasant odours, such as adding a component to the plastic used for the inner walls of the refrigerator or freezer) is removed before the appliance is put into operation: in the case of a refrigeration appliance, this has the fundamental advantage of there not being any scent in the appliance when it is functioning, as this could alter or cover the aromas of the foodstuffs contained in the appliance (for example, if strawberry essence is added to the plastic of the inner walls of a refrigerator, it will present the disadvantage of smelling of strawberry even when foodstuffs other than strawberries, such as cuts of meat, etc., are stored in it).

Fourthly, the kit (unlike all the alternative methods for removing unpleasant odours) does not affect the production cycle of the electric domestic appliance, since in the most economical form of this invention, in which the scented essence is applied to the holder by mixing the additional component with the basic material, no extra processing step is added with respect to those normally carried out.

Fifthly, the kit does not require the user to perform any additional operation with respect to what would normally be done before operating an electric domestic appliance for the first time.

Sixthly, the kit has the advantage of comprising a holder distinguished by a limited thickness: this means that a significant part of the scented essence comes into contact with the air in the internal compartment of the appliance and is therefore effective.

The invention described is susceptible to industrial application and may be modified and adapted in several ways without thereby departing from the scope of the inventive concept. Moreover, all the details of the invention may be substituted by technically equivalent elements. The invention is in fact described with reference to particular embodiments, but numerous variations are clearly possible according to the knowledge of experts in the sector and such variations lie within the framework of protection defined by the appended claims.